When the Blues came to town.

 

“Where players dash, with skates aflash, the home team trails behind.

But they grab the puck, and go bursting up, and they're down across the line.

They storm the crease, like bumble bees, they travel like a burning flame.

We see them slide, the puck inside, it's a one-one hockey game.”

Roughly 53 years ago, St. Louis had a new sports franchise come to town. The Blues had come to town and of what I was told, most St. Louisans were completely unfamiliar with the sport. That wasn’t for long, the Blues came in and captured the hearts of so many people,  I think even Cardinal fans were surprised. 

Because of their popularity, hockey gear was suddenly available in sporting goods stores and even stores that similar to Walmart—-however, Walmart wasn’t around then because they had yet to be in business. My first purchase was a stick and puck. Of what I remember, and it’s been a while, I seem to recall sticks were around $5.00…compared to those around today, which are well over $100.00. You would think they make your game better, for that amount of money they better and hopefully they won’t break.

One of my favorite things to do when I went to games, was to stand by the glass and beg/ask for autographs. Many players would sign, but there was one who didn’t and that was the goalie for the Blues. His name was Jacques Plante and he was my absolute favorite player. In fact, for the holidays, I received a mini-statue of Jacques Plante—-the only problem was he is in a different team’s jersey. I still love it however.

The photo above was taken at a recent hockey game for our local high school. This was my second game I have photographed; all I can say is hockey is a very fast game—-and focusing is really difficult. How do I know for sure? More than half of the photos were out of focus!

Thanks for stopping by.